B.C. 20-year-old is teaching his supportive dad how to build ‘old skool’ vehicles with style and grace

Willy Fitzl gets guidance building his 1935 Ford three-window coupe hot rod from his 20-year-old son Tobin who is an expert metal shaper.Alyn Edwards

Twenty-year-old Tobin Fitzl knew how he would spend his working life from the age of 14. He wanted to build custom cars and hot rods. And so at that young age he bought a rusty 1952 Lincoln Capri hardtop with $1,500 earned on his parent’s poultry farm in South Langley with plans to restore it.

Willy and Monica Fitzl didn’t know anybody doing restoration so they and their only son joined the Early Ford V8 Club for advice and support.

“They were very welcoming and helpful,” Willy says today of the experience.

But Tobin decided to go in a different direction with his hobby car. He whacked the top. That’s custom car parlance for lowering the top for a much sleeker look. Tobin’s passion for cars was ignited by Duane Mitchell, auto shop teacher at Langley Christian School. Tobin started his auto body technician apprenticeship in Grade 11 and followed it through Grade 12 and graduation.

He continued his apprenticeship at Vancouver Community College and received practical experience working at Rumble Seat Restorations in Mission. During this time, he artfully changed the look of his old Lincoln by lowering the roof and extending the rear fenders – adding curvaceous 1956 Packard taillights – just the way the famous California customizers built magazine cars in the Fifties.

Tobin’s love affair with custom cars of the past led him to build a Ford Model A coupe hot rod that looks like it’s from the early 195’s – built by a teenager with ingenuity but little money.

The fenderless and hoodless coupe featuring a chopped roof and louvered trunk is powered by a Ford flathead engine with open exhaust and floor-shift transmission. The paint is black primer, the seat cover is a blanket and there are no creature comforts.

Tobin with his first project car.

Alyn Edwards

The 1952 Lincoln that Tobin Fitzl started customizing before he was 16 years old.

Alyn Edwards

Tobin and the Ford Model A coupe hot rod he built while still a teenager.

At the age of 17, Tobin teamed up with veteran hot rod builder Frank Bevacqua to turn out hot rods and custom cars for other people. His parents decided to downsize their egg production from 6,800 birds to 3,800 and Willy repurposed an unneeded poultry barn into a new home for TopTen Hot Rods.

Through all this, Willy got the bug to build his own hot rod with help from his son. He recalled his souped-up 1957 Chevy Tudor from his own teenage years.

Willy’s 1935 Ford three-window coupe is now taking shape in the shop’s paint booth under the careful guidance of Tobin. Also looking as if it was built in the early 1950’s, the coupe is powered by the venerable Ford flathead V8 engine but with some very unusual speed equipment: a McCullough supercharger from 1939.

Tobin is a natural when it comes to building custom cars. He has taken courses in California from legendary customizer Gene Winfield and Lazze Metal Shapers in Pleasanton. He has either been taught or learned to design, fabricate and paint custom cars as well as doing all the intricate wiring and mechanical work.

“We needed to fuel Tobin’s passion for cars,” Willy says. “We are self-employed people so we encouraged Tobin to follow his love of old cars.”

Family holidays are spent chasing parts in the U.S. Many of the rare parts are purchased on the Internet.

A special project is a radically customized 1940 Mercury convertible built in California as a 100-point show car. Says Tobin: “The owner wants it to be 110 points.”

The 20-year-old auto crafter drives his Ford Model A coupe hot rod regularly while living and breathing the custom car culture. The future looks bright for the hobby with Tobin as a shining example of a young person getting involved. Now Tobin Fitzl is teaching his father how to build ‘old skool’ hot rods and custom cars as an art form.

Alyn Edwards is a classic car enthusiast and partner in Peak Communicators, a Vancouver-based public relations company. aedwards@peakco.com